The objective of the proposed research is to examine the development of sociolinguistic skills among Black children in Oakland, California. We plan to trace the development of sociolinguistic skills among children in three different age groups ranging from 5-17 years, with an equal representation of the two sexes. Our research design includes a core sample of 24-42 children and an extended sample of an additional 60 children. Specifically, we plan to document and analyze the development of sociolinguistic skills within the theoretical and methodological framework of speech functions. We view the child's growing communicative competence as the result of the acquisition of not only grammatical norms but also the acquisition of norms of language use. We focus theoretically and methodologically upon speech functions because we view verbal behavior as essentially goal-directed behavior; we thus seek to document how children from a particular sub-culture acquire the necessary linguistic and social skills (sociolinguistic skills) to accomplish their desired ends.